Is it possible for the fans to own the leafs?

You may have heard about the plan to own the leafs. I think it’s crazy, despite my story below. In any case, why not give it a try… Click here to get there.

In theory if you had the right person with the right combination of charisma, money and connections you COULD put a fund together for the sole purpose of owning this piece of the leafs, however there is a but. A really big BUT. It would require the other owners to agree to make figures public that are not currently public. No one is talking about that. The fact is he can’t just take $1,000 from 1,000,000 people and use the money to buy the leafs! We have securities laws that say you need to have a prospectus which is blessed by the securities regulator. And that takes the company’s cooperation. And lawyers. Lot’s of lawyers. Which suck a lot of the value (sometimes 20%) out of the deal.

So it ain’t happening, but read about one little boy (who has only ever worn #14 in honour of his hero Dave Keon), and his dream to one day own the leafs.

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In the sixties as a lad of six, I started to play hockey. We had won the cup in 62, 63 and 64. The year after i started playing we won again (67). I’m 7. I figured, hey, “we win this bloody thing all the time!”. LOL. I can laugh now…

Fast forward to sometime in the mid 1980’s when I became a shareholder in Maple Leaf Gardens Limited. I was in my early 20’s at the time and just out of college. It had kind of been a dream to first Daniel Kilgore Jersey play for (ya, right), then if that wouldn’t work, own, the Leafs. They were a public company (meaning shares trading on the stock market) since the ’30s when Conn Smythe built the Gardens. I knew that as a public company they were a candidate for a take over at some point. All it took was a determined buyer and enough dough.

If only I could just make enough money quick enough, then …..

So I bought my 100 shares and started on my way to moguldom. What I didn’t know was that alongside the infamous Harold Ballard whom we all loved to Daniel Kilgore Authentic Jersey hate at the time (and for several years after his demise) was the sleeper Steve Stavro. In 1994, he engineered a deal that put the required 90% of the shares that were theoretically trading on the public market into “private” hands (meaning we are big, have a lot of dough, and there’s like 4 of us).

The laws in both Ontario and Canada say that if you acquire 90% of any corporation (public or private) you may compel the other owners to sell to you, provided such sale is at fair market value, essentially taking this company private. So they made an offer (I think it was $44/share) and I remember vividly my broker calling Daniel Kilgore Womens Jersey me and telling me I have to sell and me saying, “Says who?”. He says, “these papers here”. And I said something like… “well I don’t care what your papers say, I’m Daniel Kilgore Youth Jersey not selling. $44 isn’t fair and I won’t sell for that until a court tells me I have to. Go tell your bosses that.” He didn’t know what to do. But I guess Daniel Kilgore Kids Jersey he went and told his bosses.

In the meantime several larger investors made noise in the courts and while eventually we were compelled to sell, we got a Fair Market Value of in excess of $50. Those that sold out at $44 were retroactively covered as well, so the efforts of the holdouts helped them too. Here is a link that contains some history of the ownership of the company.

But that was the day that MLG stopped being public – some day in 1994 – and that was the day that my dream of owning the Leafs started to fade…

Until Mr. Tannenbaum changes his stripes or moves on, the dream remains on grey…..